Word: mondavi
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...civilization. Recently, anti-globalization maestro José Bové has adopted Astérix's moustache along with his approach to foreign policy - with U.S. multinationals taking the place of the Roman army. That comic-book reading of 21st century economics prevailed last month in southern France, when Robert Mondavi Corp. abandoned plans to produce wine in the village of Aniane in the face of bitter local opposition. By driving out the invader, though, the villagers seem to have harmed no one more than themselves...
...producing oceans of undistinguished plonk. When that market dried up in the 1980s, a new generation of growers showed that the Languedoc could also produce smaller quantities of high-quality wine. It didn't take long for the news to reach California's Napa Valley, where Robert G. Mondavi, now 88, and his family have been making premium wines for decades. In early 1998, Mondavi dispatched a team to the Languedoc to find a vineyard where the winemaker could produce its own high-quality vintage. The company settled on 50 hectares of scrub-covered hillside above Aniane, where pioneering local...
...only problem was that the land belonged to the village. Mondavi cut a deal with the local government giving the firm a 50-year lease in return for a partnership to improve the quality of wine produced at the local growers' cooperative. In concrete terms, that meant annual payments to growers of $7,000 for each hectare they devoted to the partnership wine, plus a capital injection of $400,000 over five years to modernize the coop's equipment. So the Americans were stunned when the announcement of the project was greeted by storms of protest from an unlikely coalition...
...Diaz' election effectively sunk the project. His first action as mayor was to block ground clearance on the land Mondavi had leased for its vineyard. But beneath the rhetoric, powerful local interests were in play. Opposition to the project was led by Aimé Guibert, the owner of Daumas Gassac whose plans to sell his own vineyard to Mondavi had fallen through. Mayor Diaz won over a majority of Aniane's voters with arguments worthy of Astérix: "Do we French growers, with our know-how and traditions, really need Mondavi to help us with our wine-making technique...
...home, Disney has always worked with corporate sponsors, such as Kodak and Coca-Cola, but the trend is clearly toward shifting even more of the financial burden to them. So California Adventure offers more brand names than Macy's: the Golden Vine Winery and tasting room sponsored by Robert Mondavi, a sourdough breadmaking factory from Boudin Bakery and the Avalon Cove restaurant of celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, to name...